Several reporters assaulted, one hospitalized in Baku

April 18, 2012 4:14 PM ET

New York, April 18, 2012--Azerbaijani authorities must promptly
investigate and bring to justice perpetrators of today's brutal assault in Baku
on five independent reporters, including award-winning journalist Idrak
Abbasov, who is now hospitalized, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.

Around 11 local time this morning, security officers with
the state oil company, SOCAR, attacked and beat five journalists who were covering
demolition of houses in the Sulutepe suburb of Baku, Emin Huseynov, director of
the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS), told CPJ. The energy company
has been taking down the buildings, which it claims were built illegally on its
land, Huseynov said.

Abbasov, a journalist with IRFS and the Baku-based
independent newspaper Zerkalo,
was knocked unconscious, hospitalized, and diagnosed with a concussion and
injuries to his right eye and nose. "I feel like a soccer ball after the game,
that's how they beat me. I have pain all over my body," Abbasov told CPJ from a
hospital bed.

According to Abbasov, two dozen SOCAR security guards
attacked him and Gyunai Musayeva, a journalist with the opposition newspaper Yeni Musavat, after the two started
filming the demolition. Both reporters wore vests identifying them as "Press."
The guards, Abbasov told CPJ, knocked him to the ground and started viciously beating
him. Musayeva suffered bruises on her head, which did not require hospital
admission; the assailants deleted both reporters' recordings and damaged their equipment,
Huseynov told CPJ after he spoke to the journalists.

SOCAR hasn't publicly responded to the allegations. The
company's press office did not immediately return a phone call from CPJ.

Police, who were present at the scene, did not interfere in
the attack on Abbasov, his brother told the independent regional news website Kavkazsky Uzel.

Three other reporters -- Esmir Dzhavadova with the Azeri
service of the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Galib
Hasanov with the independent online broadcaster Obyektiv-TV, and Elnur Mammedov
of IRFS -- arrived at the demolition site after Abbasov, and were also beaten and
had their car damaged by SOCAR employees, Huseynov told CPJ.

"We are shocked by this vicious attack on Idrak Abbasov and
his colleagues, who were covering a news event the state oil company apparently
wanted to keep hidden from the public," CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program
Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. "If Azerbaijani authorities genuinely want to
welcome the international press for the Eurovision competition next month, they
can start by prosecuting those behind these assaults and sending a clear
message they will not tolerate anti-press brutality."

Abbasov's brother, Adalyat Abbasov, who was on the scene,
tried to stop the journalists' beating but was assaulted himself, and is also
hospitalized with a broken rib, Huseynov said. Idrak Abbasov is well known for
his coverage of human rights violations and official wrongdoings. He and
his family have
suffered harassment and physical
attacks in retaliation for his work, CPJ research shows.

The attack on the reporters took place weeks before Baku is
to host the Eurovision international song contest in May. Ahead of the contest,
President Ilham Aliyev has criticized negative coverage of Azerbaijan's human
rights record in the international media and said his country is democratic and
has freedom of speech, regional
press reported.

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